Government accused over MRSA target

The Government has been accused of dirty tricks after new details emerged of how it plans to hit a controversial MRSA target.

The Liberal Democrats and Tories hit out after it emerged the Government was taking into account reductions in the MRSA rate including the first quarter of 2008/2009.

In 2004, former health secretary John Reid said the Government would halve rates of MRSA by the end of March 2008.

The Government confirmed it would use figures from April to June 2008 to calculate the figure.

According to the Department of Health, the Government will measure whether the Government has hit the target by looking at figures for April to June 2008. It argues that using data prior to the end of March would measure a period before the target deadline.

But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the Government was moving the goalposts. He argued it was "no coincidence" that the time frame it had selected was after hospitals finish their deep clean programme.

He added: "This is yet another example of the Government congratulating itself while ignoring the detail.

"They have to stop moving the goalposts to dishonestly meet their own targets. They have got to be honest with patients. MRSA is a serious matter, so Labour should stop kicking it about like a political football to make it look like they are doing better than they actually are."

The news comes after figures suggested the number of MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C diff) infections is falling. There were 1,072 MRSA cases reported in England during July to September 2007, down by 18% on the previous quarterly figure of 1,304 cases.

The six-monthly rate of MRSA bloodstream infections was 1.24 cases per 10,000 bed days. This was for the period April to September 2007, and represents a 21% decrease on the previous six months, when the rate was 1.57 cases. The six-monthly rate was also 30% down on the same period in 2006, when the rate was 1.77 cases.